Valentine’s Day is well known for celebrating love between two people. I feel Valentine’s Day isn’t just for lovers, but for friends and family, as well. After all, these are people you love and cherish. Why not show your love and appreciation for them? Try our selection of Valentine’s Day gifts that are sure to brighten up everyone you love!

If you have a tea loving friend or family member, while tea is a good gift, but why not an accessory or an essential? By essential, try a tea kettle or a teapot. One can never have too many of those? If one ever breaks, you can always have extra! As always, our English Tea Store teapots come in many colors and you can choose from 2 cup or 6 cup teapot!

Perhaps the person you love is from the other side of the Pond? Wouldn’t you like to give them a taste of Home? We’ve got our selection of British sweets and chocolate to start off with. Some of our most popular candies include the world famous melt-in-your-mouth Cadbury Dairy Milk and the gooey but heavenly sweet Walkers Toffee. Let your love show their patriotism with their favorite items featuring the Union Jack. Give them a travel mug to sip their tea from or let the world know where they’re from with they’re shopping bag. Or surprise your Across the Pond Honey with a flag of Home! Great Britain, Scotland, and plenty more! Hang it in the kitchen or living room, it will bring a smile!

You can always put a surprise package together but if you’re strapped for time, try our gift baskets. They’re easy, convenient, and best of all, there’s just about one for everyone! If you know someone who is a fan of mint, we have a mint tea time basket featuring chamomile tea, or someone who is just getting into tea, there is the English Tea Store basket, and then the Deluxe Afternoon Tea for the full English tea experience!

There’s just about something for everyone. Take a look around our site and check out all of our categories!

Make the base by combining all but three of the crushed biscuits with the softened butter and press 2/3 of this mixture into a 8″ spring form tin and leave to cool.

(c) Julia Briggs – English Tea Store

Meanwhile mix together the cream cheese, sour cream, lemon zest, custard powder, vanilla essence and sugar. Then spread half over the base, sprinkle the remaining 1/3 biscuit base on and top with the other half of the mixture. At this point it can get a bit messy!

Smooth the top and bake for about one hour until firm to the touch. Cool on a wire rack for at least two hours before decorating the top.

(c) Julia Briggs – English Tea Store

For the topping melt the dark chocolate and mix with 3 oz cream, melt the white chocolate in a separate container and mix with the remaining one oz of cream. Spread the dark chocolate over the entire cake top and drizzle on the white chocolate. Use a fork to create a pattern on top and, presuming you still have the 3 biscuits you did not use in the base then use these to decorate the sides. Mine had mysteriously disappeared when it came to this part!!

This is a basic fondant mixture and you can leave them as they are or cover some with chocolate, in which case you will also need a bar of chocolate!

(c) Julia Briggs for use by The English Tea Store

(c) Julia Briggs for use by The English Tea Store

Beat the egg whites with a hand or electric mixer then add the sieved icing sugar gradually; when the paste becomes too stiff to use a mixer, change to a wooden spoon. Add about three drops of peppermint oil and knead well in with your hands. I decided to make some green ones too so I divided the mixture and added a few drops of green colouring into about one third of the paste. Taste your paste and if necessary add more peppermint oil. Roll out on an icing-sugar-sprinkled table to about a quarter inch thick, and cut rounds with a very small cutter (heart shaped one if you have one!). Dip the cutter into some icing sugar between each cutting. Leave somewhere cool to harden. When crisp on the outside cover some with chocolate and leave them to set on an oiled tray. It is a messy job to coat with chocolate but when it is done you can lick your fingers! These go very well with champagne but equally well with a light fruit or mint tea. They keep quite a long time in an airtight tin and this should make about 24.

The egg yolks can be used to make an egg custard, recipe for that coming this spring!